Apologies for the lack of blogging of late, it’s been a busy time and with the book not doing so well, I’ve not had much to blog about. For those who don’t know, my publisher unfortunately went into administration meaning my novel was no longer going to be published and subsequently unavailable in shops.
Since then I’ve created a kindle version which can be purchased for 77p! A bargain at that price. Click here to find it!
I have submitted too many more agencies and publishers since the rights were given back to me, however each was met with rejection and again with the standard “out of the box” answers.
“It’s not for us.”
“It’s not marketable.”
“My client list is full.”
Where as I can take the brunt of the rejection for the first and last comment, it’s the middle one that really gets on my nerves. “It’s not marketable.” Ok – Says who? And to what extent? What market are we talking about? You only need to take a walk into Waterstones or any other leading book shop, stroll over to the Middle grade/Teen area and look at the mass array of different unique styles of fiction in that area. To say something isn’t marketable after reading only three chapters is a bit rich, especially when the opinion is clearly subjective of one person.
But that aside, I don’t think it’s just down to opinion, it’s also down to how much money the book will make regardless of how fantastic the story is. I say this because this morning I read that a Famous YouTube Vlogger under the name of Zoe Sugg aka Zoella, has written a Children’s book and it’s tipped to be a best seller just in time for Christmas. My initial thought was “Fair play, for a debut novel that’s something special!” But then I broke it down a bit more.
She’s a very popular vlogger with over 6.5 million subscribers on YouTube who posts videos about beauty advice to her subscribers. This alone is a fantastic achievement and I tip my hat to her. To gain such a fan base takes a lot of hard work and dedication – well done!
But when she announced she was writing a book, or perhaps submitted it to an agency/publisher and perhaps noted she was a vlogger on YouTube, did the agency read her sample chapters and think “Wow what a fantastic book!” Or did they get together and say “Hey, this girl has over SIX MILLION followers on YouTube, We have to think for one second, that at least a half of her fan base will buy it!”
I pray to all holy beings that it was the former, but having dealt with agencies over the past few years, I know for a fact it was the latter, which is a real shame.
Now I can hear some of you screaming at me already “You’re just jealous.” Well, yes, she’s going to become an overnight best seller and author sensation, something I wish to be – of course I’m going to be jealous!
But there are so many would be authors out there who have written some fantastic books, but don’t get a look in because Agencies and Mainstream publishers won’t take the time to investigate the market properly and take one look at the profit margin instead.
Is my book better than Zoe’s? No. Is hers better than mine? No. It’s all down to opinion, I don’t believe for one second that she has written a terrible book. But take away her YouTube Status and she’d probably be in the same boat as the rest of us.
-Allan
Imagination and boring hotel rooms 